ROBERT BLAIS, cellist and conductor(¯`*•.(¯`*•.Well-known Northeast cellist, conductor, and pedagogue ROBERT BLAIS has performed in great halls with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and as chamber musician with the Uterlinde-Johnston-Blais Trio and the Pythagorean Trio in the Columbia University Artist Series. He has appeared as soloist with the Holyoke Symphony, the Melrose Symphony Orchestra, the Guilford Music Festival Orchestra, and the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Blais has served on the faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester in White Plains, NY, the Hollis Woods Music School in Queens, NY, the Chamber Music Institute at the University of New Hampshire and the Westford Suzuki School in Westford, MA as well as leading the popular cello orchestra Blazin’ Cellos. Robert founded and is the Artistic Director of the Green Mountain Youth Symphony, and boasts dozens of cello students in his home studio of Montpelier, Vermont.

Mr. Blais' students have been very successful in a wide variety of performing situations. His young students have been members of the Greater Boston, Northeast, Green Mountain and Vermont Youth Orchestras, have won auditions to participate in New Hampshire and Vermont All-State Festivals and All New England Orchestras, and have received top ratings in the New York State Music Association Competition. Mr. Blais' more advanced students are members of the Vermont and New Hampshire Philharmonic Orchestras and other professional orchestras. Robert has had students perform on the Rosie O'Donnell show, play solo at Lincoln Center, participate in national and international festivals, and hold successful cello studios of their own..•*´¯).•*´¯)

LYDIA BUSLER-BLAIS, hornist, composer, and improvisationalist (¯`*•.(¯`*•. Widely acclaimed as a new genre of improvisatory artist, hornist and composer LYDIA BUSLER-BLAIS began a professional career at the age of 16 performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Lydia has also performed with the New York City Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic, José Limon Dance Company, and Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, as well as holding the position of Solo Horn with the Rome Festival Opera. Busler-Blais performs as a soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist locally and abroad, and performs public live improvisations that are known to move her audience emotionally. Lydia also provides workshops and masterclasses to collegiate and conservatory studios; teaching and coaching horn, chamber music, and improvisation are Lydia’s loves. Her students enjoy positions in top youth orchestras throughout the northeastern US, many music festivals, and professionally on and off Broadway.

Lydia Busler-Blais collaborates with pianist Elizabeth Metcalfe, with the Heritage Brass Quintet, and also the New Leaf Quartet, and has improvises with hornist friends Jeffery Agrell and Marshall Sealy. With these groups, Busler-Blais enjoys repeat performances of works like her Boreal Quartet (2007) for horn, viola, cello, and piano, Earth, Light, & Time (2008) for brass quintet, Moon Lilies (2006) for horn and piano, and works like the Frost Cycle (1998) for horn, soprano, and piano, and Uptown Train (2005) scored for 2 soprani, flute, oboe, and horn and written in just over an hour for live competition Komposer Kombat (K2) on the final live airing of radio show Kalvos and Damien’s New Music Bazaar. Moon Lilies and the Frost Cycle in particular have been performed by artists across the country. Lydia is also a champion of premieres and multiple performances of new works by such composers as Yehudi Wyner, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, Eric Nielsen, John Rutter, David Soldier, and Pamela Marshall. Lydia is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and her works are published by The Westleaf Edition, on the internet at http://westleaf.org/.

****PRESS**** Critic Dan Wolfe writes, “Busler-Blais is an amazing horn player… The sound...seemed to rise out of her upper jaw and cheekbones. Her embouchure is unique in my experience, and it enables her to play anything without a slip.” Jim Decker, the film industry’s most recorded studio horn player, praises Lydia’s “excellent phrasing and musicianship.” Horn recording artist Lowell Greer writes that Lydia is "...a fine horn player and moreover a gifted musician." Lydia Busler-Blais resides in the capitol of Vermont with her cellist and conductor husband Robert and young cellist and homeschooling son Tristan..•*´¯).•*´¯)